Heron triangles and their elliptic curves (Q2182159): Difference between revisions

In this article, the authors study the Heron triples, the Heronian elliptic curves, and the H-triples which are the generalization of the Heron triples and also their relations with Diophantine equations. The Heron triple is a triple of rational numbers \((a,b,\lambda)\in\mathbb Q^3\) with \(a,b\ne 0\) and \(\sqrt{1-\lambda^2}\) is a rational number, for which a Heron triangle exists, i.e., a triangle with integral area such that all side lengths are rational and \(\lambda\) is the cosine of the vertex angle. The area of a right Heron triangle \((\lambda=0) \) is called as congruent number. The H-triple is defined to be a triple of rational numbers \((a,b,\lambda)\in\mathbb Q^3\) such that \(a,b\ne 0\) and \(c=\sqrt{a^2-2\lambda ab+b^2}\) is rational. If \(|\lambda|<1\), then a H-triple is a Heron triple. The authors show that non-zero integers \(p,q,a,b,r,s\) are an integral solution for the Diophantine equation \((p^2-q^2)(a^2-b^2)=r^2-s^2\) if and only if there exists a rational \(\lambda\) such that \((qa,pb,\lambda)\) and \((pa,qb,\lambda)\) are H-triples. The authors give the generalized Fermat algorithm to produce infinitely many Heron triangles sharing the same angle and the same area and characterize isosceles Heron triangles \((a,b,c)\) with \(a=b\). Furthermore, they investigate pairs of integral isosceles Heron triangles and integral Pythagorean triangles of the same area and show that such a pair is deduced from every positive integral solution of the Diophantine equation \(pq(p^2-q^2)=2mn(m^2-n^2)l^2\). Moreover, they construct triples of integral Heron triangles of the same area and sharing an angle from positive solutions of the Diophantine equation \(m=n^2+nl+l^2\). For a Heron triple \((a,b, \lambda)\) with the area \(A\), the Heronian elliptic curve \(E_{\lambda,Q,A}\) is defined by the equation \(y^2=x^3+\lambda Qx^2-A^2x\), where \(Q=2A/\sqrt{1-\lambda^2}\). They offer explicit correspondence between Heron triples \((a,b,\lambda)\) with the area \(A\) and the same angle \(\lambda\) and rational points \((x,y)\) with \(y\ne0\) of \(E_{\lambda,Q,A}\), and observe that the generalized Fermat algorithm corresponds to the action of doubling points (up to the sign) on \(E_{\lambda,Q,A}\). Under this observation, they give a new proof of the theorem of \textit{E. H. Goins} and \textit{D. Maddox} [Rocky Mt. J. Math. 36, No. 5, 1511--1524 (2006; Zbl 1137.11039)] for the torsion group \(E_{\lambda,Q,A}(\mathbb Q)\) which does not need computer assistance. By using the triples of integral Heron triangles deduced from solutions of \(m=n^2+nl+l^2\), they obtain a family of Heronian elliptic curves of rank at least \(2\) and examples of Heronian curve of rank \(5\).